1984 - Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist of the story is Winston Smith. Winston Smith is 39 years old. He is employed at the Ministry of Truth, London, located in Oceania. He lives in a world which is shaped by the ruling Party and the country leader Big Brother. Winston is part of the established system. He has a safe job with the Government, his career path is established and livelihood guaranteed.  His job involves the revision of historical documents and their rewriting in line with the Party’s rules and vision.  

However, Winston does not feel happy and fulfilled. He feels that the system is stifling free spirit, free enterprise and individual freedoms. The prevailing feeling in the society is that of fear and oppression. He feels that what he is doing is not morally right and is contrary to his convictions and views.  He feels that with his daily job he is indirectly contributing to the oppression of the population in Oceania and reinforcement of the ruling Party. He feels that his life is void of any meaning and purpose, since he cannot control it or influence it. He feels no passion for his work and he feels no enthusiasm for life

Winston cannot remember people from his childhood, especially his mother who had disappeared years before.  He investigates the life in London before the Revolution, eager to trace his roots. However, the Party managed to eradicate all remnants of daily life in the past.  He realizes that what he is doing in his daily job is exactly to further eradicate and reshape history for future generations.

Winston is thorn by emotions and feels guilty. Guilty of being part of the system and guilty for not being brave enough to rebel openly.

The Party, however, does not completely control Winston. Winston tries to rebel and undertake activities that are not in conformity with the established order.  He starts keeping a diary, he enters into a relationship with a girl and he discusses the possibility of joining the Brotherhood, in order to overthrow Big Brother. He is overwhelmed with fear but he tries to rebel.

In Oceania, freedom of thought is prohibited and sanctioned. Keeping a diary and expressing one’s thoughts is illegal.  Winston secretly buys an illegal diary in which he writes statements like: “Down With Big Brother.” In doing so, he commits the worst offense, “thoughtcrime,” a term for the “essential crime that contained all others in itself.”   He enters into a relationship with Julia, a fellow employee at the Ministry of Truth. Relationships are not allowed either, since they are sign of promiscuity, which is prohibited. Feelings are not encouraged, either, and marriages are, as a rule, loveless. At the start of their affair, Julia and Winston consider their desire for one another as a political act against the Party.  As the relationship develops, they are led by feelings and end up discussing the repressiveness of their lives and the possibility of joining the Brotherhood, a secret group whose purpose is to overthrow Big Brother and reinstall personal freedom and free enterprise in Oceania.  Winston feels that as a group, they can defy the order and change the system.  He is a positive and brave figure, since he decides to act and defy the system that he has helped create.
 
The antagonist is the Party and the system in Orwell’s society. The Society is shaped by the Party and dictator Big Brother. Big Brother controls life in Oceania through the four ministries of Peace, Love, Plenty, and Truth. The Party rules, regulates and monitors life in Oceania. The Party carries out government policies in Oceania, rations food, allocates clothing and selects social activities.  The Party suppresses individual freedom, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom to act. Any actions and thoughts against the Party are severely sanctioned. The prevailing feeling among the people is the feeling of repression and fear.  The Party monitors every move and expression with telescreens, hidden microphones and by way of spies.  The Big Brother posters are all over the city reminding people that “Big Brother Is Watching.”  The Thought Police, Big Brother’s secret militia, is used by the Party to suppress any sign of revolt by eliminating all who think or behave in a disloyal way.

The Party sanctions all actions against the established order and rewards loyalty and devotion to Big Brother.  The Party intensifies feeling against Emmanuel Goldstein and the Brotherhood, a group of people thinking differently. They are qualified as Enemy of the People. The Party counts on the obedience of the people when facing the sanctions and physical elimination. Fighting the Party requires ultimate courage and cannot be done on the individual level. This is the society that Winston is an active part of and that does not agree with, morally.  Hence, his frustration and the moral dilemmas that he is facing in the novel.